Showing posts with label Flying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flying. Show all posts

September 14, 2023

Archer Flying Car


(Credit Photos: Michelle Blumenthal)


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March 26, 2023

@Cherry Blossom Kite Festival

 














(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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April 21, 2022

Comfy In The Airport

  

Sure, make yourself comfortable,

Take your shoes off. 

Put your feet up. 

Wrap your legs around some luggage. 

Recline and put your head back into the pillow.

Put in your ear buds and listen to some music.

Have something to drink.

Take a few extra seats.

Relax and enjoy.

Flying the friendly skies.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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March 28, 2022

Ready for Takeoff

 

Lego Airplane. 

Flying the friendly skies!  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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March 16, 2022

Beautiful Purim Butterfly

Butterfly.

Spreading its wings. 

Flying gently.

Colorful. 

Healing. 

Happy. 

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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December 1, 2021

Sleeping or Dead?

Is this person sleeping or dead in the airport?

The flight isn't even delayed!  

It's like 9 or 10 in the morning. 

These days everything goes. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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August 4, 2021

Manifest Peacock

For those following the show Manifest, the peacock is a symbol frequently seen the callings by the resurrected passengers from flight 828.

Certainly, the peacock is a most amazing and beautiful of birds. 

But does anyone know what the peacock actually represents in the show?

Maybe we'll find out in Season 4, along with what does Noah's ark have to do with any of it.  

A strange show with constantly more questions than answers.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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May 14, 2021

Broken Uber and Stupid Airport

 

So we are going to the airport early this morning and everything seemed to go wrong.

Because we needed an Uber early, we used the app to reserve one in advance.

I get an email that Uber charged us and the app says the driver is on the way.

However, it doesn't identify any driver or car. 

It turns out that Uber never reserved any driver and no one was coming to get us and we had a flight to catch.

So much for reservations that go unreserved!

So we cancel the darn Uber and instead try to get a Lyft, but after many minutes trying in vain to locate a driver, we gave up on this as well,

Thank goodness, I could still call a regular cab!

The taxi company says he'll be there in 10-20 minutes. 

Over 35 minutes later and 3 phones calls and he still hasn't arrived and it's getting late for the flight.

Finally, finally, he shows up and says they called up and he came from bed to pick us up. 

Wow, that's pretty amazing--I was impressed and grateful.

He get us to the airport and we run in and through security.

We head to gate 30 for our flight and the picture shows you what we came up against.

Gate 29 and gate 31 in the corner of the airport, but no freakin gate 30 anywhere in sight!

After a swing around the other corners, we finally found it.

Why gate 30 isn't after 29 and before 31, I will never understand!

Moreover, why Uber takes reservations in advance for a car, but doesn't actually arrange a driver is also a complete mystery and a very broken business model.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)


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October 6, 2020

Awesome Hot Air Balloons


Hot Air Balloons are so awesome!

Dreamy, drifting into the sky. 

Flying away with a birds-eye view.

Looking near and far across the landscape.

To the sunrise and the sunset. 

Calm, coasting, and carried by the wind. 

Fire breathing into the balloon. 

Up, up, and away.

My beautiful, my beautiful balloon! ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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January 17, 2020

Airplane Art

Why aren't airplanes really decorated like this?

It would be so much more fun to get on a plane that displayed some pizzaz!

All we hear about are plane delays, cancelled flights, mishandled baggage, and involuntary bumping.

Oh, and don't forget the ever more cramped seating and the entertainment system that is habitually broken.

How does this industry get away with all this crap? ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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December 10, 2019

Training With Paper Airplanes

So I was in an Agile and Scrum Management class yesterday. 

Always looking for new best practices and efficiencies for what we are doing in software development. 

We did one exercise to compare the old Waterfall methodology with Agile. 

And the instructor had us as a team build paper airplanes one way and then the other so see the difference in output and outcome. 

Lo and behold, we had almost 40 planes in agile and only 6 in waterfall. 

What you see in the photo is the testing phase: we actually had to see if they could fly at least 10 feet without taking a nosedive.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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February 16, 2018

Who Says Flying Can't Be More Enjoyable


This flight attendant is terrific here. 

She delivers the typical hum-drum public service announcements in a whole new way--now (maybe) you'll actually pay attention.

Smart cookie and fun sense of humor. 

Happy Friday and enjoy!

(Thank you to Itzchak Ochayon for sharing this with me)
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December 29, 2017

When The Wires Get Crossed

So the flight coming back from Israel was technologically challenged. 

I'm sitting toward the front of the plane...more room, that's good.

But there are a bunch of families with small children and babies...and that ends up being bad. 

The flight attendants bring out this contraption to hook up a crib device to a front wall of the plane for the parents to put the baby in to sleep. 

But there ends up being one small problem.

The overhead lights are seriously messed up.

This passenger with the baby tries to use his button next to his seat to turn the bright reading lights off--this is like row 10 or something. 

But when he hits the lights off button--instead the lights go off in row 22. 

And they stay on in his row keeping his baby awake and crying virtually the whole flight.

The stewardesses are going crazy trying to figure out where the "wires got crossed" here. 

When they go to row 22 and ask them to turn off their lights--thinking maybe that will turn off the lights in row 10 that is keeping the baby up and crying--but instead that turns off the lights further in the back of the plane in row 30-something. 

This was a really bad comedy going on this plane.

The baby keeps crying and crying.

The stewardesses keep running around trying to figure out how to get the lights working where they are supposed to be working.

And the parents are frustrated as hell trying to calm the baby and get some rest on this lengthy, cross-ocean flight. 

Needless-to-say, all the other passengers trying to get some rest weren't thrilled at this ridiculousness going on.

The plane got us home, but the electrical system didn't inspire any confidence and kept the baby (and us) up almost the entire flight. 

When you think that this was just the lights--oh boy!  

Because what if the wires had gotten crossed between something important like the accelerator and the brake instead?  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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December 19, 2016

Flying Sneaks

We can all fly.

Not necessarily through the air.

But through life and ultimately in death, we can fight and take flight and soar. 

It is our attitude and determination to overcome the hardest of hardships that we face. 

We feel the pain for the situations where we fell, failed, and lost control over outcomes. 

People who told us what they thought we are and where we can go...our ego busted, our shame written all over us, our regret and fear over what we did or should've done differently.

We can't go back.

We can only go forward.

We can learn, and we can grow.

We can compartmentalize the problems and hurt. 

We can pick up the pieces wiser than before and more determined to succeed.

Wings are not just for angels, but also for sneakers and for souls. 

I want to fly all around the world, and more so into the heavens to see my Heavenly father and be reunited for eternity with my family and loved ones.

Fly free and wide.

Fly high and unobstructed by poverty, illness, abuse, and loneliness. 

Fly and soar beyond anything we could ever have imagined. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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June 8, 2016

Jet Bluing Around



(Source Video: Andy Blumenthal)
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February 23, 2015

Flying Garbage

Thought this was an interesting way to get the garbage to the curbside truck.

This guy is standing in the yard of this brownstone building in the leftover snow.

Almost like an Olympian, he is picking up bag after bag of garbage and tossing them at least a dozen feet (or more).

The garbage in these big hefty bags are sailing through the air to his partner standing by the truck in the street. 

This guy must be getting quite some exercise not only lifting, but also throwing these bags all day long.

And he actually seemed to be having some fun doing it too.

Like my wife said, "What if you get hit by the garbage...ew."

Fly garbage, fly! ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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July 19, 2014

Risk In The Eye Of The Beholder

Should I do it or is it too risky?

That's a question we ask ourselves many times a day.


- Open our mouths at work or keep a lid on it.


- Run to catch that train or bus or slow down and go more carefully.


- Eat that greasy burger and fries or opt for a salad and smoothie.


- Invest in that highflier stock or put your money in the "G" fund.


The Wall Street Journal presents risk management as both quantifiable and qualitative. 


For example, a MicroMort (1 MM, and sounds like micro fart) is "equal to one-in-a million chance of death."


An average American has a 1.3MMs chance of a "sudden, violent end" on any given day. 


However, climb to the base camp at Mount Everest (at 29K feet), that's over 12,000 MM, base jump at only 430 MMs per jump, parachute 7 MM, and go on a roller coaster at only .0015 MM. 


So there you have it--statistics tell the risk story!


But not so fast, our risk calculations also take into account our qualitative values. For example, we tend to lower the risk in our minds of postpartum depression (10-15% or higher) because we value having a baby. 


Similarly, we tend to think driving (1 MM per 240 miles) is safer than flying (1 MM per 7,500 miles) because we believe we are in control of the automobile, as opposed to a passenger jet flown by a couple of pilots. 


The result, "Scariness of an activity isn't necessarily proportionate to its risk."


That means that you can easily make a mistake and underestimate risk, because of your personality or cultural and social biases. 


Rock climb at your own risk...BUT do you really understand what that risk even is or are you driven to do something overly dangerous and maybe stupid. ;-)


(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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January 19, 2014

We Can Fly


Totally awesome viral video.

Looks like 3 flying people. 

Really they are drones in the shape of human figures. 

If only we could really fly that way--wow we!  ;-)
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December 30, 2013

Up Up And Away



Had a wonderful time with Rebecca Blumenthal today.

We went air ballooning over Las Vegas. 

I was surprised at how large the balloons were and how easy the ride was--didn't even feel it when we lifted off the ground and before I knew it, we were 4,000 feet above sea level. 

I shot the video standing in the balloon as it was being inflated--never knew you could do that!

And I took the photo of the balloon with the Vegas Strip in the background--you can see the Stratosphere on the left along with the other fancy hotels and sites. 

The view from above was beautiful, the air outside was cool, but under the burners of the balloon we were warm and toasty. 

Sheldon Grauberger was a terrific aeronaut and guide today and you could see, completely, the total passion he had for this sport.

He told us how he actually trains others for free--he "pays it forward," since he was taught almost 20 years ago similarly. 

The sky, mountains, city, breeze, and peace and quiet floating overhead was so amazing. 

I sort of felt like the young boy, Pascal, in the movie, The Red Balloon.

He dreams of a better future and is carried off by the balloons into the wild blue yonder to live happily ever after, please G-d. ;-)

(Source Photo and Video: Andy Blumenthal)
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February 13, 2013

Flying Under The Ocean


This is a cool video of a new experimental swimsuit called "oceanwings."

Similar to wingsuits for BASE jumping (skydiving), oceanwings have underarm and between the leg wings or spans of material that essentially gives a person float.

With oceanwings, instead of flying through the sky, you can fly through the water.

They are made by Aqua Lung which makes and sells professional and recreational scuba diving equipment. 

For someone that loves the water, oceanwing diving looks beautiful, calming, and a heck of a lot of fun. 

Not sure in the video, how the guy is breathing under water (since they don't seem to show any sort of air tank), but maybe he is just going on bated breath. ;-)

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